AVANGRID, Inc. is a diversified energy and utility company with 7,000 employees, $31 billion in assets and operations in 23 states. Formed from the 2015 merger of Iberdrola USA and UIL Holdings Corporation, AVANGRID remains an affiliate of the Iberdrola Group, a worldwide leader in the energy industry.

In early years, the company’s leadership recognized the need to become more agile in order to quickly respond to the unique challenges of a global company as well as the evolution of the utility industry (smart grid, system automation, etc.).  Change management became a key strategic initiative.

“The AVANGRID/Prosci partnership is very rewarding. Prosci’s team is knowledgeable, responsive, and consistently seeks to evolve the change management discipline through quality research and benchmarking. Their three-day base certification program is one of the best trainings I have experienced in my career! 

— Diane M. Schreiner, Director of Change Management at AVANGRID, Inc. 

Challenge

To mobilize people to become more agile in a rapidly changing industry.

Solution

Partnership with Prosci

From the very beginning, AVANGRID’s approach to building an enterprise-wide change management capability was structured and intentional. 

Solution Highlights

• Implement a change management program at AVANGRID
• Adopt the Prosci Change Management Methodology and obtain an enterprise license
• Establish a Change Management Office and Roadmap
• Build a Change Management Network of certified professionals across all business areas
• Establish a change management webinar series to educate employees on upcoming changes in the enterprise
• Develop an Enterprise Change Management Plan
• Conduct a Maturity Model Audit to determine baseline change management competency
• Provide change management consulting services to various business areas

After an initial few months of research, the company created a Change Management Office, consisting of a director, Diane Schreiner, and two senior analysts. Their first task was to select a change management methodology and write an enterprise-wide strategic plan to create change management as a core competency. 

The selection process was robust and included research into various well-known change management methodologies, as well as interviews with organizations that had adopted them. The new Change Management Office selected Prosci based on its practical application, scalability and proven reputation. As Prosci is a knowledge transfer company, leaders were confident that Prosci would give them the tools and skills to apply the model to increase their organization’s change management capabilities.

Participating in Prosci’s Change Management Certification Program confirmed to the AVANGRID team that they had made the right choice, and when they returned to AVANGRID, they invested in a Prosci site license and completed their Change Management Roadmap. The Roadmap outlined a plan to implement change management at an enterprise level in two separate ways: on select projects with significant employee impacts and through a Change Agent Network (see below).

Application

Initially, the Change Management Office selected a pilot Wellness initiative, a larger Operational Excellence project and an enterprise-wide global SAP implementation. The SAP implementation impacted 4,100 employees and required significant changes for many departments. 

By completing very thorough and well-documented change management plans and regularly reporting demonstrated successes, the Change Management Office quickly gained the trust and respect of leadership, both within the U.S. and in their parent company, Iberdrola. During the initial meeting with the Change Management Office and the management steering committee, the team came prepared to demonstrate the results of change management efforts, and these updates ultimately became an integral part of the meetings. The Networks SAP implementation went live and was considered a huge success, with only 10% of employees requiring refresher training.

1. Change Agent Network

In conjunction with the SAP implementation, the Change Management Office moved forward with selecting and certifying change practitioners throughout the organization, acting as the governing entity overseeing a decentralized Change Agent Network within the various business units. 

The Change Management Office, in partnership with Business Area Leaders, was responsible for selecting these certified change practitioners and had strict criteria for its applicants. These candidates had to have both technical expertise and people skills necessary to influence those in the organization, independent of where they were in the hierarchy. In three years, the Change Management Office sent 20 selected employees through Prosci’s Change Management Certification Program, and the Change Agent Network was formed.

AVANGRID also made the conscious decision to send its change management staff to public Prosci-instructed Change Management Certification Programs. Not only did this ensure a quality training experience for their practitioners, but it also exposed employees to participants from other industries to share experiences. 

2. Training

In addition to sending their new change agents to Prosci Certification, the staff of the Change Management Office also attended a Prosci Enterprise Change Management Boot Camp. They had previously completed a Change Management Maturity Audit, which they used to establish a baseline, and at the Boot Camp they were further able to identify gaps in their program and adjust their Change Management Roadmap accordingly.

3. Going Forward

Once the initial projects had come to a successful end, the Change Management Office began to expand its change management application to other enterprise-wide initiatives that had a high impact on all employees. This continued work on new projects has solidified AVANGRID’s process for applying change management to a project.

The next big push for building change management across the organization involved broader change management training and socialization. AVANGRID aims to implement change management into the organization’s day-today work, so that it becomes a core competency. All AVANGRID supervisors (roughly 550 people) had the option to attend a Change Management 101 webinar that offered an overview of Prosci’s change management methodology and AVANGRID’s vision for a change management capability.

A customized change management boot camp was designed to include basic change management tools, interactive exercises and immediately applicable takeaways. This workshop includes updates on a handful of ongoing enterprise-wide initiatives so that supervisors have both the tools and the information they need to communicate about a change to their employees. 

In addition, the Change Management Office established a series of optional interactive webinars designed to provide awareness to employees about changes underway to people, processes, and technology that are transforming the organization and the industry. These webinars are offered at least once a month and are recorded and posted to the change management SharePoint site. Employee participation is not mandatory but is already resulting in 200 to 550 attendees per webinar. 

Results

AVANGRID has seen steady progress in a short amount of time through their application of change management to their large-scale projects. However, the  company is still working to implement change management in day-to-day business operations.

Growth in Change Management Maturity

Using the Prosci Change Management Maturity Model as a gauge, AVANGRID began its journey to change management capability with a Level 1 maturity, meaning that the organization had ad hoc or absent change management. Today, the organization is securely in Level 3 maturity and well on its way to achieving Level 5, the highest maturity level. With over 30 certified change management practitioners throughout the organization, the Change Management Office has a goal of having over 50 certified practitioners going forward.

Change Management Expanding Across  the Organization

The success that AVANGRID has realized from applying change management to its high-impact initiatives has also prompted its parent company to invest in the Prosci change management methodology, utilizing the Prosci affiliate CMC Partnership for training. The AVANGRID Change Management Office also provides consultancy services to business areas for projects of varying scope where this expertise does not exist. 

As successes are recognized, demand for change management certifications has increased, which will accelerate the path to enterprise change management competency.